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They are GPUs, but standing for General Processing Unit. "GPU" the acronym has persisted from sheer force of tradition and habit, but what it means has changed

They are GPUs, but standing for General Processing Unit. "GPU" the acronym has persisted from sheer force of tradition and habit, but what it means has changed drastically over the past several years between cryptocurrency and now "AI". I wonder if NPU will supercede GPU as in General Processing Unit now that it has finally entered the wider lexicon, relegating GPU back to Graphics Processing Unit or video cards. And no, GPGPU (General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit) is a bloody stupid term to be bluntly honest.

taneq 2y ago
That might be how you use the term but GPU is still almost universally used to mean graphics processing unit. If it want to use a ubiquitous acronym to mean something different, you need to define it first.
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  >GPU is still almost universally used to mean graphics processing unit. No, GPU is almost universally used to mean GPU. There is nothing graphical about cryptocurrency, "AI" (sans image generation), protein crunching, and whatever else they are being used for that aren't graphical. I question how many people are even aware the G is supposed to stand for Graphics anymore. The nomenclature is outdated and doesn't reflect reality anymore.
  - smcin 2y ago
    > I question how many people are even aware the G is supposed to stand for Graphics anymore. Most people aren't aware, because the industry never called attention to the morphng definition of GPU. At that, CPUs aren't Central (for large-scale array-oriented computing workloads) anymore either. (They still are for enterprise or web workloads. Or, they're "Central" in terms of coordinating GPUs and moving data around. But no longer "Central" in terms of "does most of the computing".)
lxgr 2y ago
Acronyms don’t just change their meaning through a lack of tradition and habit. Etymology doesn’t have an expiration date. Very rarely, an acronym is “retconned” into a more appropriate expansion or simply starts being considered a regular word not standing for anything. I’d strongly challenge your assertion that this has happened for “GPU”.
_flux 2y ago
The current GPUs aren't really that generally applicable though, as they are most useful when you need to do a bunch of number crunching on a lot of data of the same structure—which is why we still run compilers on CPUs. If you are offended by the term GPGPU, maybe we could use the name Compute Processing Unit :-).
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  >If you are offended by the term GPGPU, maybe we could use the name Compute Processing Unit :-) I can certainly drink to that.

taneq 2y ago

That might be how you use the term but GPU is still almost universally used to mean graphics processing unit. If it want to use a ubiquitous acronym to mean something different, you need to define it first.

Dalewyn 2y ago
>GPU is still almost universally used to mean graphics processing unit. No, GPU is almost universally used to mean GPU. There is nothing graphical about cryptocurrency, "AI" (sans image generation), protein crunching, and whatever else they are being used for that aren't graphical. I question how many people are even aware the G is supposed to stand for Graphics anymore. The nomenclature is outdated and doesn't reflect reality anymore.
- smcin 2y ago
  > I question how many people are even aware the G is supposed to stand for Graphics anymore. Most people aren't aware, because the industry never called attention to the morphng definition of GPU. At that, CPUs aren't Central (for large-scale array-oriented computing workloads) anymore either. (They still are for enterprise or web workloads. Or, they're "Central" in terms of coordinating GPUs and moving data around. But no longer "Central" in terms of "does most of the computing".)

lxgr 2y ago

Acronyms don’t just change their meaning through a lack of tradition and habit. Etymology doesn’t have an expiration date. Very rarely, an acronym is “retconned” into a more appropriate expansion or simply starts being considered a regular word not standing for anything. I’d strongly challenge your assertion that this has happened for “GPU”.

_flux 2y ago

The current GPUs aren't really that generally applicable though, as they are most useful when you need to do a bunch of number crunching on a lot of data of the same structure—which is why we still run compilers on CPUs. If you are offended by the term GPGPU, maybe we could use the name Compute Processing Unit :-).

Dalewyn 2y ago
>If you are offended by the term GPGPU, maybe we could use the name Compute Processing Unit :-) I can certainly drink to that.